PeopleTools – the next version

 PeopleSoft, PeopleTools  No Responses »
Oct 162011
 

Almost all of the technical PeopleSoft sessions at OpenWorld were using PeopleTools 8.52 which in not GA yet. I was pleasantly surprised that Oracle showed commitment to PeopleSoft platform and desire to develop not only the PeopleTools but also enhance the product offering by providing more integrations and run-times of the other products that Oracle owns, for example Oracle SES Search will replace Verity in the next version PeopleTools and will also provide enhanced search capability throughout the application. Here is a sneak peek of the new stuff:

  • Pivot Grids – interactive analytics based on the query
  • Related Content/Actions – additional action in the context of current transaction without leaving the current page
  • Application Search / Component Search (SES) – navigate to transactions, items in the catalog and whatever else you have indexed
  • Pagelet Improvements – Enhanced ability to drill, edit fields in the pagelets
  • Modal Windows – removed limitations intorduced in 8.51, more widely used in Applications 9.2
  • InterWindows communications are intorduced
  • Application Designer–  (finally) drilling into Application Classes/Packages, Find Definition references for Application Classes

It seems that there are more good news across the Oracle products – in order to gain competetive advantage we should be seen more and more products being better integrated and even some of them being offered for free within a product you already own. Fusion Apps for example utilize Hyperion Analytics for grids. Of course those “free” components will have just a run-time license.

For full overview of the new features coming out in 8.52  you can download the PeopleTools Highlights session presentation from the OpenWorld Site

 Posted by Iouri Chadour at 9:47 pm  Tagged with: , ,

PeopleTools Gottchas

 Development, PeopleSoft, PeopleTools  No Responses »
Sep 252011
 

As I was working on the Peoplesoft upgrade project I have noticed that some of the developers were still using App. Designer Compare reports as a sole means to comparing the code and components during customization reapplication process. It seems the new ways of doing compares are not being used as extensively as I hoped.

I figured I would write a quick post to remind my developers and others out there some of the features that have been implemented since version 8.49. For those experts readers who have been using these and other technics for awhile I would appreciate if you share your own technics.

 Running Compares

So without further due, below you can see a sample PeopleSoft’s visual merge compare for Project Peoplecode. In order to save you from long and boring explanations – I will leave it to PeopleBooks – Using Merge Interface. However I would like to add just a few comments – sometimes I find myself pasting compare code into good old Notepad++ and running a compare in there. I guess I do like the power of the full fledged editor and syntax highlighting does not hurt as well.

PeopleCode Compare/Merge

As much fun as App Designer reports are I always like to look at the reports in the HTML view  – better , faster and cleaner experience. And all it take is specifying Generate HTML report in the Compare Options in App Designer:

Generate Browser Reports

Secondary Pages

If you are creating a complex page that contains some sort of look-up pages – always a good idea to split the interface and not create page that would overwhelm the user.  In earlier versions of tools going to secondary pages required user to transfer to a separate page, however since Tools 8.50 – secondary and modal pages can open in a modal JavaScript Popup that still allows you to stay on the same page:

modal secondary form

 

 

 

 

In order to enable this behavior for existing and new pages you just need to enable one little checkbox and voila:

Enable Modal Secondary Page

 

Change Control

When working in a team and making multiple changes to the environment you don’t want to be stepping on each others toes. Although still quite limited and inferior to Tools like Quest Stat – PeopleTools built in change control does provide you the ability to lock objects while you change them and leave comments as to what was done (always a good idea). This also helps with documentation – once you are done with the changes you can run a quick SQL and get a report of all the changes that were done for more please go to here.

I hope you enjoy this and let me know if you have any suggestions.

 

 

 Posted by Iouri Chadour at 2:18 pm  Tagged with: ,

PeopleSoft & Tools Roadmap – Part II – Releases

 PeopleSoft  No Responses »
Sep 262010
 

PeopleTools & Application Releases

Oracle will try to release once a year Tools updates called – “Feature Packs”. I would like to talk in more detail about this because it affects upgrade strategy and resource planning.

  • Each PeopleTools version will be patched until 12 months after the NEXT version is released
  • Critical Updates (CPU’s) will be produced for 12 months beyond that

Oracle recommends upgrading Tools on an annual basis to keep in sync with releases. Some people who usually upgrade to get significant features or to resolve problems, would find this annoying and resource consuming. For those folks there is  Alternate Strategy – Skip One:

  • Upgrade prior to end of patch support (every 2 years)

Oracle will make major application releases approximately every 3 years.

For better of for worse – the above allows to do better planning of the resources on IT and business side. I just hope Oracle will actually keep this schedule.

Please see the screenshots from the relevant Oracle presentation slides below:

PeopleSoft Patch Support

PeopleSoft Patch Support

Peopletools Alternate Upgrade Strategy

Peopletools Alternate Upgrade Strategy - Skip One

 Posted by Iouri Chadour at 10:46 pm  Tagged with: ,

PeopleSoft & Tools Roadmap – Part I – Feature Highlights

 PeopleSoft  No Responses »
Sep 252010
 

Here is a brief overview of my take on what is coming for PeopleSoft and Tools in the next several years.

In the first part I would like to talk about what I would call “quick hits” – items that requires little explanation but you should look-up those for further details in either PeopleBooks or other resources. In the second part of the RoadMap post I would like to talk about other items that I believe require more explanation and I would love to hear more feedback on from all who reads my blog, and as you all know I always appreciate you questions and comments.

PeopleTools – New Features

  1. PeopleTools 8.51 is released and has some new features that I will talk about in a separate post
  2. Concentration on better Integration with existing products to maximize value – Hyperion, Fusion, GRC and SaaS solutions
  3. Embedded application help – AJAX driven help pop-ups on different component, can be customized by making your own entries in PeopleBooks
  4. Smart Navigation includes – Persistent Search Results, Related Actions, Hierarchical Navigation
  5. Work Center FrameWork – UI improvement that allows for better work management: dynamically displays pending user work as it comes all in one place. This feature emphasizes productivity and allows for better work tracking.
  6. Financial Close – process based, gant charts, graphs , status pages – complements work to people
  7. Partial Page Refreshes – allow for less traffic and faster page rendering of the components
  8. Use of modal dialogs – concentration on bringing work to users instead of making users navigate to processes
  9. Collaboration – Instant Messaging, Integration with Email, Rich Text Editor
  10. RSS Feeds Results enabled in Query, Portal Content and Integration Broker Web Services
  11. Dashboards – nice and pretty dashboards are available for multiple components
  12. PeopleSoft Test Framework and Usage Monitor
    • Test cases and data are Peopletoold metadata objects
    • Integrated with usage reporting
    • Allows to record and maintain system test scripts
  13. GRC solution – analyst driven, identified risk based transactions
  14. Support for 64 bit AIX and Windows platforms
  15. Support for SFTP

Note: that part of Oracle’s aggressive strategy of optimizing their products for their platforms  there will be additional tuning option for Oracle db and other oracle products.

Please see a screen-shot from Oracle Presentation that  has a more complete list of features. If you would like to see larger image please use open the image below in New Tab or new Window:

Tools 850 Enhancements

Tools 850 Enhancements

 Posted by Iouri Chadour at 7:48 pm  Tagged with: ,

Process Scheduler Tracing and Troubleshooting

 PeopleSoft, PeopleTools  No Responses »
Jan 202010
 

Straight from Oracle – here is a new guide for troubleshooting and tracing different processes. It also include updates for XML Publisher and Crystal reports.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25496613/

Enjoy!

 Posted by Iouri Chadour at 2:15 pm  Tagged with: , ,
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